Pedestrians became angry protesters recently in Chongqing after a man claiming to be a local government official began slapping a student who accidentally ran into him on his bicycle.
The incident took place in Beibei, Chongqing, on the evening of March 15. Ms. Jiang, who works at a restaurant on the nearby Bei Xia Road, told The Epoch Times that a 17-year-old student rode his bicycle between two men, accidentally brushing past one of them.
The student immediately dismounted to say sorry, but the two men objected, and instead one of them hit him, she said.
She saw a large crowd gather next to the adjacent 502 bus stop, and traffic was forced to a crawl; the incident had quickly attracted attention and negative comments from onlookers.
The man who had been hit by the bicycle said very loudly: “I work for the city government,” before hitting the student again, and knocking his cellphone to the ground. The student did not retaliate, and even smiled while apologizing.
Ms. Jiang said the student was slapped a total of six times by the man claiming to be a government official. Onlookers took exception to his behavior and one called out: “What’s so special about the government? The thing we fear the least is the government, from Lei Zhengfu [a Chongqing city official involved in a sexual scandal] down to officials acting wildly on the street in Beibei District, there are no good people in the government,” according to Ms. Jiang’s recollection.
The two alleged officials were by that point hemmed in by the crowd. Later, when the police came to the rescue, the mob rocked one of the cars until it nearly overturned.
Riot police and government officials also began arriving, announcing that they would be taking all three men away for questioning. They also told the crowd that the two supposed officials were actually financial staff at a company, and not actually government employees—though they did not make clear how they had ascertained that information. The police said they would severely punish the perpetrators, and then forced their way out through the crowd.
A local resident, who did not wish to be identified in speaking about anti-regime protests for fear of possible retaliation, told The Epoch Times that some police were afraid to leave their vehicles unattended. Experience has shown that when angry crowds gather in China, they often like to overturn police cars.
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